First Black man elected to Wyoming's Territorial or State Legislature on September 4, 1879.
Hardin was praised as a skilled and passionate orator. While living in Denver he fought for equal rights, suffrage, and school integration for African-Americans.
In his first term in the Wyoming Legislature, he introduced six bills, two of which became law. They included a bill protecting dairymen and a bill setting a $0.25 bounty on chicken hawks and eagles. In his second term, he introduced three bills, two of which became law. The first bill expanded the city boundaries of Cheyenne and the second bill made it a misdemeanor to threaten with a deadly weapon unless it was in self-defense. He also supported a law allowing for interracial marriage in Wyoming territory.
Hardin left Wyoming in 1882. He moved to Utah where he continued his profession as a barber.
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Taylor Haynes is a rancher and a urologist in Cheyenne. According to Ballotpedia Taylor Haynes become vice chief of staff and Chairman of Patient Care at DePaul Hospital of Cheyenne. He was twice appointed to the Board of Trustees of the University of Wyoming. Haynes serves as President and Chief Medical Officer of Mountain Benefit Associates.
Haynes ran for Governor of Wyoming under the Republican ticket in 2014 and 2018. He lost the race in the Republican primaries. He ran for Governor under the Constitution Party ticket in the 2010 gubernatorial race.
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Anthony “Tony” Darryl Turner was renowned for his athletic and personal diplomacy transcending cultural differences and unifying people of all races, which is often absent in today’s society. Tony Turner is the first Black athlete to win the Milward Simpson Award. The award is named in honor of the former governor and United States senator, one of Wyoming’s greatest athletes. It is awarded to the most outstanding male and female high school seniors and is considered the most prestigious award a Wyoming athlete can earn during their high school career. Turner accomplished this feat at a time when the state's population was less than 1% Black and paved the way for future Black athletes.
Born October 10, 1961, and raised in Cheyenne, Wyoming, Tony Turner excelled in sports and participated in school basketball, football, wrestling, and track extracurricular activities starting in early childhood and throughout his junior and senior high school career. Beginning in 7th and 8th grades, Turner’s McCormick basketball team had undefeated seasons. Also, during this time, Turner paid forward his experiences, knowledge, and skills by assisting with the girls’ basketball teams.
At Central High School, Tuner honed his basketball, track, and football skills and was an exceptional athlete with the keen ability to work as a team player and individually. During his junior year, he often led the basketball team in scoring. He became state champion in the triple jump and the 400-meter dash in track and field, which Coach Lew Roney said is an extremely difficult double. When Turner was a senior, he was all-state in both basketball and football. Turner was, again, a state champion in the 400-meter dash and triple jump. He also played on state championship teams in all three sports. On the basketball team, Tony often led in scoring and was a key contributor to the team’s state championship.
His athletic excellence and intellect led Turner to play basketball for Kentucky State University, Abilene Christian University, and Central Wyoming College, where he earned an associate of arts degree. Turner utilized his degree to become an outstanding sales representative, and later to teach, mentor, and coach students in the Laramie County School District 1, where he was highly sought after, and kids and teachers loved him.
In 1987, Tony Turner married Michelle Landry. From that union came their son, Anthony B. Turner. On November 2, 2022, Turner died due to cancer at the age of 61. Throughout his life, Turner worked hard to enhance his life and skill sets while mentoring, inspiring, and advocating for others. Although not physically with us, Turner’s spirit of influence and inspiration continues to live in the hearts and minds of those who knew and loved him.
Wyoming's First African-American woman elected to the Wyoming Legislature.
April 20, 1826 - Born in Cheyenne, Wyoming
1944 - Graduate Cheyenne Central High School
1947 - Marries James W. Byrd
1949 - Graduates from West Virginia State College with a bachelor of science in education
1959 - Begins working as an Elementary teacher for Cheyenne's School District.
1967 - Awarded "Instructor of Excellence" Award by Instructor Magazine
1976 - Receives a master's in education from the University of Wyoming Graduate School
1980 - Elected to the Wyoming House of Representatives
1986 - Retires from teaching
1988 - Elected to the Wyoming Senate
1989 - "I Dream a World," a book profiling 75 black women who changed America, including Byrd, was published.
1993 - Featured in the book, "Who's Who of American Women."
1995 - Husband Jim Byrd dies on December 5
January 27, 2015 - Died
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James "Jim" Beckwourth was among the first mountain men to trap and trade in the territory that would become Wyoming.
Born in 1798 in Virginia, his mother was a slave and his white father acknowledged and emancipated him. Jim moved with his father to St. Louis, where he apprenticed as a blacksmith but soon grew restless. He joined up with William Henry Ashley and "Ashley's Hundred," the early name for a fur trading company that would become the Rocky Mountain Fur Company.
While with the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, Jim worked in Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. In the 1820s, Jim connected with the Crow Nation and lived amongst them for around a decade. In the mid-1830s, he returned to "civilization." Jim briefly served in the army during the Seminole Wars, returned to the Rocky Mountains as an independent trapper, guide, and trader. He founded "El Pueblo," a hotel in Santa Fe, and participated in the California gold rush. Jim Beckwourth lived a long and fascinating life. He gave his story to a journalist named Thomas D. Bonner.
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James "Jim" Byrd was one of the first Black Chief of Police in the nation. He served in Cheyenne.
Byrd was the husband of Harriet Elizabeth "Liz" Byrd, who he met while stationed at Fort Warren.
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Robert Charles "Buck" Rhone was a first-class mechanic for the Union Pacific Railroad, Cheyenne Civic Leader, and the father of Harriet Elizabeth Byrd. Buck Rhone park in Cheyenne (Pershing Boulevard and Central Avenue) is named for him.
He was born March 22, 1903, in Laramie and attended Cheyenne High School, where Rhone was a top athlete and star of the football team.
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